Is that Prescription Drug Safe?

Your doctor wrote you a prescription. He
is supposed to know. He is the expert. But is that
new drug really safe. Or, will you come up in a few years with
cancer or heart disease or stroke or liver failure. Drug safety
is a big issue.

Yes, we all will die. But isn't the goal
to live well as long as possible. When I
am 100 years old, I want to still be able to walk and drive and
think clearly. I want to see and hear the world around
me. I do not want to stare at a wall in some lovely
nursing home even if the staff there is really good and
caring.

Watch TV any evening and you will see dozens of
commercials for new drugs. Always with the message to ask
your doctor about this drug. The people in the ads are
pictured as attractive, younger and healthy and active after
taking any of these drugs. Your mind thinks, yes I want
that. I could have that problem. Let me go see my
doctor and get that new wonder drug.

But is that Prescription
Drug Safe for you or anyone?

Maybe you listen to the possible side effects
which are always played down. If there was really truth
in advertising, you would hear in bold words, this is a new
experimental drug which we anticipate will make our company
millions of dollars and oh by the way, we haven't used it long
enough to tell if it will destroy your liver or stress your
heart to the point where you will have a heart attack or a
stroke or maybe just settle into Alzheimer's.

The pharmaceutical industry funds $400 million
of the $1.9 billion budget of the FDA. That money has
strings attached. One of those strings is to restrict the
sale of natural herbs. No one can make big bucks from
naturally occurring products.

One of the strings is to ensure that the FDA
releases drugs based on testing from the company. That
testing is always biased on the part of the manufacturer.
Some times it even comes to light that the testing is flawed or
just plain untrue. When you withhold information about
the bad side that is a lie.

The FDA has lost all credibility. They
have stated that they will once again open a lab to do their
own independent research to determine if the prescription drug
is safe. (When?) You still have strings.

Of course, there's
quite a bit more to drug production than just active
ingredients. But even after you consider the cost of research
and development, manufacturing, marketing, packaging, legal
fees, etc., you're left with an easy-to-understand equation:
Consumers pay through the nose while major drug companies make
billions in profits each year.

Doesn't leave much incentive for anyone to
research a long-standing time-tested herbal product. No
one can patent Cat's Claw or Echinacea. They can put
together a combination of herbs and patent that product. But
who is going to pay $300 for 100 capsules of a common herb no
matter how pretty the package.

Yes, I have seen many ads for special
combinations of herbs priced at $80 a bottle of 60
capsules. The claim is that the multi herb formula is
standardized and time released and works best in this
combination. Well sometimes that might be true.
However, if you look at the ingredients label, you may find
that one herb is really higher than you should be taking.
And there may be one herb in there that you are allergic
to. There are only a few companies that I trust to buy
combination herbal formulas.

Just because it is herbal does not mean there
are no risks. Herbs are strong. Used in the wrong
way they can be deadly. That is a fact. Using herbs
while taking a doctor prescribed drug can really open a can of
worms. Those herbs may negate the drug or increase the effects
of the drug.

Vitamin and mineral supplements are the same
thing. You can take too much of a specific vitamin and
cause liver damage.

It is time for you to wake up. Be
responsible for your own health. Ask questions and do the
research. Just exactly what are the side effects of that
new drug. Does your doctor have any case history on how
effective that drug really is. Why does your doctor
believe that prescription drug safe? Not the manufacturer info
but his personal experience. Will your doctor consider
herbal products instead.

Bottom line, you can't trust the manufacturer
or the FDA. Look at the history of smoking. How
many years before the government finally insisted that a
warning label be put on cigarettes. Actually this is a prime
example of how big business works. You have a product,
pipe tobacco and you want a bigger market. So now you
have cigars. But you still want a bigger market and more
profits. The time is right and women are looking for
equality so lets make a cigarette because it will look daintier
in a feminine hand. Smokes faster than a cigar and will
make lots and lots of money. If it kills a few people so
what. The manufacturer did not hold a gun to their head
to make them smoke. And there are always new
generations coming along.

It is a flawed society intent on making money
not on the welfare of the people. Oh yes, we must all
have an income. But when you put profit ahead of health
--- you lose both.

Answers For Your Health is edited and published
by Sharon Owen. Plain language answers for your health
concerns. Live life the natural way. For more
information on herbs and natural health check out Answers For Your Health.com